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Well, after a crappy start to my day i had to kick myself in the ass to get going. I was up again at 7 am, although that's better than the usual 5 am starts i've been getting.

I left the house at around 12pm. Destination: The Louvre!
I managed to get lost on the way there (of course). But with Amanda's trusty map i found my way

(it was a little windy)

That was pretty cool. So now i can say i've been there. :P Some weird dude kept talking to me, told me i looked very french. blah blah blah. It was pretty creepy. A lot of strange people were doing that today :| not cool

A little about the Louvre:
The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. The building, a former royal palace, lies in the centre of Paris, between the Seine river and the Rue de Rivoli. Its central courtyard, now occupied by the Louvre glass pyramid, lies in the axis of the Champs-Élysées, and thus forms the nucleus from which the Axe historique springs. Part of the royal Palace of the Louvre was first opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793, during the French Revolution.

Second Destination: Jardin du Carrosuel, and Jardin des Tuileries.
Yup... looked like a garden. With fountains. and a pond thing. It was a nice walk. Minus more creepy french men!!!

Destination Three: Champs Elysees
Just had a glance of this from the end of the road. Looked Cool. You could see the Arc du Triomphe too. It looks like it'd be pretty cool to see at night!!

A little about the Champs Elysees
The Champs-Elysées literally the "Elysian fields") is a broad avenue in the French capital Paris. Its full name is actually 'Avenue des Champs Elysées'. With its cinemas, cafés, and luxury specialty shops, the Champs-Elysées is one of the most famous streets in the world. The name refers to the Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed in Greek mythology (i.e. heaven). The Champs-Elysées is also named "la plus belle avenue du monde" or "the most beautiful avenue in the world" in French.

From there I visited the Eiffel Tower. And Yup, Shaun you're right, it looks MUCH bigger standing closer to it!!! It was pretty cool though. I can't wait to see it again at night... only a few more days!! We're going to go ice skating on the Eiffel tower, and have dinner there for my birthday! That'll be pretty cool.

From there I went back to Les Invalides to take some more pictures and wander. Pretty cool stuff.

So right now it's just after 4pm
Amanda gets off work at 5 tonight, then we're going to go out on the town.
Should be interesting!!!!

I'll let you know how that goes!

I miss everyone at home, and can't wait to see you next week!

ps. I love you Shaun.

Today's been a long and busy day. I fell asleep last night probably before 9pm. I was BEAT! But then, of course, at 5am i was wide awake, and feeling pretty damn home sick.

Amanda headed off to work and I stayed at her place. She came back with the little boy she takes care of (he had no school today) They came and brought me a really yummy pastry for breakfast, then it was off to Notre Dame!

It was really cool, and the weather started to get beautiful while we were there. I got some neat shots. I'd like to go back and take more time reading things, etc. I bought a little tour guide for it, so i may read that then head back there to "take it all in".

From there we came back home. I got to ride the bus, and the metro! It was kinda neat to experience that.
I thought this picture was coool too, it was taken outside the Notre Dame.

After we went to see Les Invalides when the boy Amanda nanny's was taking his kirate class. that was pretty cool. I think i'm going to head back there to take more pictures too;. They've got neat cannons and stuff. Louis XIV built this "hotel" to shelter the disable soldiers of his numerous campaigns. One of my ancesters, a gendarme (French horserider policeman) died there in 1847. At this time, it was a house for retired soldiers. Napoleon's tomb is here. The emperor's body is protected by 6 coffins and nobody dares to make an autopsy to discover if he was poisened by Hudson Lowe, his jailer, in 1821

Here's a pic on the walk there:

just as the sun was setting we went and walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It was sooo pretty in real life! I was standing there eating a chocolate crepe taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower. It was just so bizarre!!!!


amazing huh?!?
the last picture was during their light show they do every hour.. the whole tower twinkles! it's pretty cool
i got some video of it as well

so for right now i'm back at Amanda's until she's done work...which is fine with me! i'm all snuggled up in my bed with the laptop
i don't know what's up for tonight, but all i wanna do is SLEEP!

Well, it's nearly 11am on January 3rd, and i'm in Paris!
Amanda and I arrived this morning.

so it all began at 4am when Shaun and I headed to the airport. we met up there with Amanda, and checked in for my flight. I ended up getting on the same flight as Amanda... BUSINESS CLASS! I travelled to Toronto in STYLE man!! it was awesome. We were over Pitt Meadows in about 10 minutes flat!!

It was pretty cool, we were travelling at about 3300 feet, and we went over the majority of BC, through Washington, Montana, idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, and i even waved at Crystal as we went through Wisconsin! hehe

i was LOVING business class... nice comfy seats that even had BACK MASSAGERS in them! I was spoiled rotten! Then came breakfast. They brought us these nice fruit plates, YUM! then MORE! I picked the scrambled eggs and sausages.. they were soooo yummy, i even took a picture i was so impressed (the guy sitting next to me thought i was a TOTAL redneck!!!)

Although the steward was from Pitt Meadows, and the guy sitting next to me was in the music industry or something. The flight attendant kept asking him if he was ok, and gave him his address so he could send him his "new cd, when it comes out in June". I still have no idea who he was. Although we had another "brush with fame" at the airport in Toronto. Amanda recognized some actor from the TV show "Queer as Folk". She went up and said hi and all that stuff. It was kinda neat (even though i had no idea who he was!)

Oh yeah, did I tell you they served us ICE CREAM AND COOKIES on the flight too!?!? hehehehehe

I slept a little on the flight, but not nearly enough. WE arrived at Toronto's pearson international airport at 1:20 pm local time. (10:20 Vancouver time)

From there we had a layover until our next flight. We could be found checking out the shops, and sitting down reading our magazines until it was time to board.

I managed to get on the same flight as amanda again! YAY!
Although this time we weren't sitting together and i was in economy But that's ok! we managed to talk a girl into switching seats so we ended up sitting together anyway. It SOOOOO wasn't as nice as business class... man, their seats reclined back so much they looked like BEDS!! hopefully i can get in on that action when i head back home!!!!!

so on the flight i fell asleep right away... I was almost sleeping before the plane took off, i was that tired!!! I woke up for dinner while flying over Quebec. Wasn't as fancy as my breakfast, but at that point i don't think it really mattered!!!

we arrived in paris at 8:06am local time, on January 3rd. The weather was foggy and it was only 3 degrees above freezing.

By 9:12 we were on a shuttle to Paris, although there's some sort of bus strike so we couldn't get where we needed to go, so we had to take a cab part way. Before even leaving the airport i had some french airport worker call me beautiful. haha Yup, Now i know why i was warned about the French men out here!!! :P

So so far, i've seen the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe! hehe

Right now it's 1:07 pm. I'm sitting at Amanda's place. it's super small, but it'll totally do for the two of us for the time i'm here! She's gone off to pick up the boy she nanny's for lunch from school. I stayed home. I'm feeling really sick for some reason, i hope it passes

So yeah. that's the trip so far.
I'll upload some pictures in a while.

I miss everyone already
I can't believe I haven't been gone even 24 hours and i'm homesick already.

Well, today's the big day!

I can't believe I leave TODAY.
Minus having a little bit of an "episode" this afternoon, I think I'm all set to go. I'm really nervous to be going, but I think that's just because it's not something that I've done before. I told Shaun that after I conquer Paris on my own, we'll go conquer Australia together I think I've got the travel bug, and I haven't even left yet.

Thank goodness I'm (*hopefully*) going to be traveling with Amanda. That's making things a lot easier to handle. If I'm this worried traveling WITH her, I'd be scared if I was going to Paris for sure, on my own!

Well, I think I'm over tired and hungry so I better deal with that.

Just think, the next time I'll write, I'll be in another country...
.
.
.
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On another continent!

ps. here are some cool links for paris stuff
A LIVE webcam of the Eiffel Tower (just remember, Paris is 9 hours ahead!)

Paris Weather Forecast! (as you can see it's going to be COOOOOLLLLD!!)

^---- Paris Right now!

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. Located on the river Seine in the country's north, it is a major cultural and political centre of Europe and the world's most visited city.

Its eponym, "the City of Light" (la Ville Lumière), dates from 1828 when it became the first city in Europe to light its main boulevards with gas street lamps along its Champs-Élysées. The city of Paris is also widely referred to as the "most romantic city in the world."

Administratively speaking, the city of Paris is a French commune (municipality). It is divided into twenty municipal arrondissements (see: above picture), numbered in a clockwise spiral outwards from the Ier arrondissement at the center of the city. Two parks on the edge of the city proper, Bois de Boulogne on the west and Bois de Vincennes on the east, belong to the 16th and 12th arrondissements respectively. If I'm not mistaken, Amanda lives in the 7th arrondissement (the same as the Eiffel Tower).